


Steak, Flowers, and Wedding Rings

by songsofthespring



Category: Free!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Domestic Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2014-12-13
Packaged: 2018-03-01 05:57:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2762192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songsofthespring/pseuds/songsofthespring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I don’t know how to do the proposal thing.”</p><p>Rin snorts, rolls his eyes. “So you came to me? I cried so fucking hard afterward that Ai freaked and had to try and calm me down. It was terrible.” Even so, Rin’s expression is undeniably fond, and Haru catches the split second he looks down at his wedding ring before he looks back up again. </p><p>“I don’t know many people who are married.” Haru tells him, sighing. “My options were limited.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steak, Flowers, and Wedding Rings

**Author's Note:**

> For an amazing friend's 22nd birthday today! She's a huge Makoharu and Rintori shipper, and coincidentally, the person that got me sucked into Free!, so it's fitting that my first fic for this fandom is a birthday present for her! Heather, I am sorry that this is so ridiculously sappy. I hope you like it!

“Makoto is exactly like water.” Haru tells Rin. They’re sitting on Rin’s couch watching some American show Haru doesn’t understand. It doesn’t matter. What he’s really here for is to talk about Makoto.

“Okay,” Rin says, raises a hand and an eyebrow, “You _have_ to admit that sounds weird as hell.”

Haru shakes his head. “It makes perfect sense to me.”

Rin lets out a long sigh. “Fine. How is Makoto like water?”

“He’s easy to be around. He understands me. I feel better when I’m around him. Those are things that the water makes me feel too.”

“That’s pretty high praise from you, I guess, but you’ve known Makoto since you were a kid. Of course he understands you.”

Haru gives Rin a look. “He knows me a lot better than you do.”

“Hey!” Rin gripes, “I know you like mackerel and water and freestyle and Makoto and that you went to the Olympics with me and beat me by half a fucking second. Speaking of which, by the way, I made a new personal best yesterday, so you bet your ass that’s not happening again.” Apparently Rin is still sore about that. Haru rolls his eyes. “Anyway, my point is that I know all the important things about you. Plus all the embarrassing things you did when you were a kid and the stupid shit you pulled in high school.”

“You’re not being very much help.” Haru says. He’s turned his head away from Rin and towards the T.V. screen, but he doesn’t really care about the show they’re watching. He probably wouldn’t even if he could understand all the English. It’s a cowboy show which means there’s no water or swimming and Haru is pretty sure Rin likes it more for the romance than the gun battles anyway.

“You haven’t exactly been forthcoming about what you even want to talk about it.” Rin grumps. “You literally just told me you wanted to talk about Makoto, and you talk about your boyfriend a shit ton already, so that doesn’t mean much.”

“I’m going to ask him to marry me,” says Haru, quietly, tangles and untangles his fingers in his lap.

Rin splutters, fumbles for the remote, and turns off the television. “What?! Are you serious?”

“Of course I’m serious. Why would I lie about something like that?”

“How long were you going to wait to tell me this?!”

“Until now. Obviously.”

Rin descends into furious gibberish for a while, so Haru tunes him out. Instead, he fishes in his coat pocket for the box that contains Makoto’s ring. He ordered it a while back, but he picked it up last week, and he’s been fiddling with it ever since.

“Oh my god,” Rin cries, and snatches the box out of Haru’s hands. “You even picked out the ring without telling me? You’re an awful friend, you know that?” He cracks open the box and gives an impressed whistle as he retrieves the ring. “Hey! It’s not terrible looking!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Uh. Hate to break it to you, but your taste is terrible. But this is actually kind of classy looking.”

“It looks like Makoto.” Haru says, lips turning up a little at the corners as he stares at the ring. He’s quite proud of it actually. Haru is sure it’s not the fanciest ring out there, but Makoto wouldn’t want that. He’d want something simple but heartfelt. So Haru had found something like that for him. It’s a plain gold band, but Haru had the inside engraved with their names.

Haru can pinpoint the exact moment when Rin discovers the engraving because Rin immediately starts to tear up. What a sap. It’s not even his wedding.

“This is really great, Haru,” Rin hands him back the ring, and Haru carefully places it back in its box and stows it away again. Rin clears his throat and Haru can tell he’s trying really hard not to let himself actually cry.  “So, when are you going to ask him?”

“I don’t know. That’s the problem.” Haru admits. “I don’t know how to do the proposal thing.”

Rin snorts, rolls his eyes. “So you came to _me_? I cried so fucking hard afterward that Ai freaked and had to try and calm me down. It was terrible.” Even so, Rin’s expression is undeniably fond, and Haru catches the split second he looks down at his wedding ring before he looks back up again.

“I don’t know many people who are married.” Haru tells him, sighing. “My options were limited.”

“Seriously Haru. Just do something romantic and sappy and Makoto will love it. He’ll love it even if you screw up horribly.”

Haru frowns. He knows that. Of course he knows Makoto will make the best of things even if everything goes wrong. It’s Makoto who is famous for putting on a smile even when everything’s falling apart around him. The point is that Haru doesn’t _want_ it to go wrong. Makoto deserves it to be perfect.

Rin sighs. “Honestly. Just. I don’t know. Make dinner for him. Make fancy stuff not your usual mackerel. Set up the table all nice with candles and a tablecloth and flowers. Make it a surprise. And then just kneel down and pop the question. It’s not that hard.”

\---

It’s very hard. For one thing, Haru has no idea what to make for dinner. He knows all of Makoto’s favorite foods of course, but Rin said it needs to be something fancy. What counts as fancy? Makoto likes green curry a lot, but is that fancy enough for a proposal dinner? Maybe Rin meant something foreign? But Makoto might not like something like that.

Haru practically tears his cookbook and the Internet apart looking for something. Too many people have too many ideas about what constitutes as a fancy dinner. He very nearly gives up and just makes mackerel, but no, that’s his favorite dish not Makoto’s, so he sucks it up and decides to cook steak instead. The internet seems to agree that steak is fancy enough.

Then, Haru agonizes over when to actually do it. Haru usually cooks dinner because Makoto works until just before the time they usually eat. Haru doesn’t mind much because Makoto’s cooking is cringe worthy, and Haru likes to cook. It would be easy to just surprise Makoto one day with the nice dinner and the ring, but what day? What if Makoto’s feeling sick that day and doesn’t want to eat? What if he had an awful day and just wants to sleep? What if he has a craving for takeout that day?

\---

“For god’s sake, just ask him already,” Rin snaps. “This is getting ridiculous.” They’re at Rin’s house again, but by this time, a week has passed, and it’s a weekend, so Nitori’s there too.

Usually, Makoto would come with Haru to spend time with Rin on a Saturday, but Makoto is working with a swimming student today who missed lessons on Friday. Haru, of course, was disappointed to lose Makoto for today, but jumped at the opportunity to ask Rin for more advice.

Nitori, who’s sitting on the couch on Rin’s other side, gives Rin’s side a gentle nudge with his elbow. “Hey, be nice, Rin! Besides, he’ll do it when he’s ready.”

Rin elbows his partner back, though Haru notes that Rin’s much gentler about it than when he elbows Haru. “You’re taking his side, Ai? Come on. I was the one who proposed, here.”

 “And you did a great job.” Nitori says, and kisses Rin’s cheek.

“Of course I did.” Rin grumbles, but puts an arm around Ai anyway.

“Anyway,” Nitori says, leaning into Rin’s arm, “You shouldn’t worry about it too much. Otherwise you’re just going to burst into tears like Rin.”

“How the hell was I supposed to avoid doing that, huh?” Rin says, huffing. “I was proposing and it was romantic and _you_ started crying first!”

Nitori just leans over and gives Rin a kiss, which sufficiently shuts him up.

Haru tunes them out for a moment and thinks about the way Makoto might react to a steak dinner, candles, flowers, and a proposal. He smiles. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” Nitori says, with a smile in return, “You’ll be just fine!”

\---

“I’m home, Haru!” Makoto calls and Haru nearly knocks over the vase of flowers on the kitchen table in his haste to meet his boyfriend at the door.  He is not fine.

“Welcome home.” Haru says, praying that his smile doesn’t seem too strained. Apparently he’s managed to appear semi-normal, because Makoto doesn’t comment and gives him a kiss.

“Something smells good.” Makoto says, smiling against Haru’s lips and giving him another quick kiss. “What did you make, Haru?”

“Steak.” Haru replies and takes Makoto’s hand. “I made it special for you.”

“Haru,” Makoto says voice airy with delight. “You didn’t have to go through the trouble…” When Haru leads Makoto into the dining room, Makoto tenses, and Haru feels like an idiot. This was a terrible idea. “Oh, Haru! What’s all this? I didn’t forget about some important event that happened today right? It’s not a holiday, and our anniversary’s two months from now, right? So what…”

Haru breathes a sigh of relief. “You didn’t forget about anything,” Haru says. “Sit down. I’ll explain later.”

“Well, alright,” says Makoto, sounding cheerful but still a little bewildered, and he doesn’t end up sitting until Haru sits down first.

They look at each for a second, Makoto still looking a little confused, and Haru too nervous to speak first, before Makoto laughs. “Well, thank you, Haru. You really didn’t have to go to all of the trouble to make this, but I’m looking forward to eating it!”

“Let’s eat.” Haru replies, relieved. He knew he could count on Makoto to save the situation.

Makoto smiles across the table at him and picks up the fork Haru’s set by his plate. Haru picks up his own, lifts his piece to his mouth, and pauses. Was he supposed to ask him before they ate? No, no, Makoto will probably be too excited to eat after. At least, Haru hopes he’ll be that excited. So he lets Makoto eat, doing his best to eat a little himself despite his nerves.

Luckily, Makoto likes the steak enough that he’s just about done with his portion by the time that he looks up and notices Haru’s barely been picking at his. He pauses immediately and puts down his fork. “Haru? Is something wrong?”

“No,” Haru replies, and he means it, even though his legs are shaking a little under the table. “Makoto, I did make steak for a reason.”

“You did? Oh, Haru, what was it? You should have told me if I forgot something!”

“You didn’t forget. The important thing hasn’t happened yet.” Haru replies, reaches for Makoto’s hand across the table.

“Haru, you’re shaking!” Makoto says, and now he’s really concerned, but Haru isn’t about to stop now. He’s nearly there.

“Close your eyes.” Haru tells him, meets his eyes. “Please.”

Makoto closes his eyes obediently. Haru wants to kiss him. He waits though, because he only has a few seconds to get up, dig out the box, open it, and get on his knees.

“Can I open them?” Makoto says, and Haru takes a deep breath.

“Open them.” Haru says, and watches with trepidation as Makoto opens his eyes. He’s still looking over at where Haru was sitting at the table, so it takes him a second to turn his head and see Haru kneeling at his side.

“H-Haru!” He gasps, hands fluttering in shock. “I-Is that?”

“Makoto Tachibana, will you marry—oof!” Haru isn’t expecting Makoto to practically throw himself at Haru so both of them go toppling backwards and Haru hits the back of his head on the dining room floor.

“Yes!” Makoto’s babbling, “Haru, yes! I absolutely will!”

“You didn’t let me finish!” Haru grumbles, but his face hurts because he’s smiling so wide.

“Sorry!” Makoto says, and laughs. “I just couldn’t help it. Haru! You totally surprised me!”

“Good.” Haru replies, shoves at Makoto’s shoulder a little so Makoto will give him space to sit up. He still has the box in one hand, so he takes Makoto’s hand. Before he slips the ring on, he tilts the ring so Makoto could see the inside. “I got it engraved. Do you like it?”

Makoto peers at the inside of the ring, where “Haru and Makoto” is written, beams, and nods. “I love it. I love you, Haru. I can’t believe we’re getting _married_.”

Oh no. Haru hadn’t thought that far ahead. He was so worried about proposing he forgot he had to start planning a wedding next. He supposes he’ll just have to ask Rin for more advice. Rin may not be the best choice, but he’s gotten him this far, and Makoto is happy, so as far as Haru is concerned, that’s all that matters.

Haru slips the ring onto Makoto’s ring finger, and it fits perfectly.


End file.
